On the ‘Inside’ track

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2000 | 11:37 a.m.

When VegasInsider.com acquired DBC Sports and its assets in April, the deal marked the latest step in the progression of a sports betting-information juggernaut that traces its roots to an oddsmaking company founded in 1982 by a former gambler named Michael Roxborough.

But VegasInsider.com encompasses much more than "Roxy's place," as it is sometimes mistakenly referred to.

First, a bit of background.

DBC Sports was formed in 1995 when Roxborough's Las Vegas Sports Consultants joined forces with statistics service Computer Sports World under the umbrella of Data Broadcasting Company, a stock market-oriented information company.

Today, the betting lines on nearly all major sporting events still originate at Las Vegas Sports Consultants. Computer Sports World still maintains its extensive database of sports and wagering-related information.

And since this past spring, the entire operation has been owned by VegasInsider.com, a privately owned 3-year-old company based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- and now, also in Las Vegas.

Forecast: Growth

Cliff Matis, general manager of VegasInsider.com and bicoastal frequent flier since April's acquisition, built an impressive resume in electronic media before taking his current position.

Among other ventures, he helped oversee CNN's rise from start-up project to premier news organization.

Matis predicts the same sort of growth for VegasInsider.com.

"I think the gaming and information business is very similar to the news and information business," Matis said at the VegasInsider.com offices on Grier Drive, a pop fly from the runways of McCarran International Airport.

"The comparison is an easy one to make, from the perception in the marketplace to the similarity of the growth stages the company goes through."

Internet users who call up the VegasInsider.com website find a wealth of gaming-related information.

Included are daily game matchups with weather, injuries and betting lines; live scores; an odds ticker; futures book odds; unusual betting propositions from Nevada and offshore sports books; articles from both VegasInsider.com staffers and the Gold Sheet; and fantasy sports contests.

All these features are free to access.

"Our business model is primarily an advertiser-supported website," Matis said. "We want to continue to offer a new and more compelling product, which we hope leads to more of what we call 'unique users' and 'page views.' The goal is to get users to spend more time on our site, which helps generate more advertising."

VegasInsider.com's stable of sports handicappers do offer services to customers who wish to pay for them, although that's not part of the primary business model, Matis said.

"With the Internet, as with cable television, you want to use other mediums along with your own to cross-promote," Matis said. "We like to say there are touts and there are handicappers, and we definitely have handicappers. Names like (VegasInsider.com's) Russ Culver are very well known if you're into sports gaming.

"Our handicappers are frequently on the radio, (quoted) in many other publications. ... Utilizing media sources other than your own can certainly help promotionally."

The linemakers

First-time visitors to the offices of Las Vegas Sports Consultants have frequently marveled at the fact the betting line used around the world originates right here -- in this unassuming modern office building by the airport.

For the linemakers who work there day in and day out, though, it's par for the course.

"We're so focused on trying to help our clients here in Nevada and abroad, we don't think about it in that scope," said operations manager Pete Korner.

Since VegasInsider.com took over, LVSC has continued to provide odds on sporting events and related services to more than 90 percent of Nevada's sports books, as well as established houses in the Caribbean, Australia, Mexico and Europe.

"We're still doing the same work," Korner said. "We're hoping to be able to expand our services even more -- we're ready for whatever they have in store for us."

There are 10 oddsmakers at LVSC -- with a minimum of four assigned to any one sport -- among approximately 28 VegasInsider.com employees here.

While LVSC's relationship with the sports books is generally good, Korner said there are occasional flare-ups. If the bettors -- or "players," as they're known in the business -- beat the house in a particular game or over the course of a big football weekend, LVSC will hear about it.

"We do get raised voices in here now and then," Korner said. "But we don't take it personally. ... There's no way a book can win every week; there are going to be some bad weeks.

"Our biggest concern is that at the end of the year our clients have a profitable bottom line."

A fine balance

Matis has a profound respect for the one aspect of the wagering-information business that cuts like a double-edged sword through each component of VegasInsider.com:

The betting line.

"It's one of the finest balances in life," Matis said of the line and its long strange trip from the time it's created by oddsmakers, massaged by sports book managers and analyzed by handicappers, until it's hammered into place by professional bettors and the gambling public.

Matis rejects the notion that it's somehow inappropriate for VegasInsider.com to employ both oddsmakers, who make the line, and handicappers, who bet into it.

"There's no impropriety at all," Matis said. "The line we send out to sports books is designed to make a profit for our clients (the books). Our handicappers don't tell you how to beat the line -- they give you an opinion on how the public money is going to fall and how you may be able to use that knowledge to your advantage.

"It's two completely different groups of people looking at it from two very extreme positions."

Matis said even the appearance of impropriety would be anathema to his business.

"We are in the gaming business," Matis said. "We want the gaming business to flourish. We want the public to have the utmost confidence in the regulation and legitimacy of gaming, and we want to make sure gaming in Nevada continues to remain robust."

Although this year you would have been better off wagering on the Blue Jackets to win the Stanley Cup than on Internet IPOs, Matis has not ruled out taking VegasInsider.com public sometime in the future.

"Unlike a lot of dot-coms, we make a profit," marketing director Steve Meyer said.

Matis added, "We're going to grow substantially this year. I'd like to see some more shakeout in the industry. ... The best and the strongest will survive, and we'll continue to be among the best and the strongest."